In the first place, if you contemplate appropriating a portion of your land for the raising of fruits, you should have the orchard so situated that no large animals can run at large on the grounds. Prepare your soil in the most thorough manner; underdrain, if necessary, to carry off surplus water; dig deep, large holes; fill in the bottom with debris; in the very bottom put a few leaves, clam and oyster shells, etc., then sods; above and below the roots put a good garden or field soil; do not give the trees fresh manure at the time of setting, but the following fall manure highly with any kind on top of the ground; dig it in the following spring; keep the soil frequently worked during the summer, and, if convenient, mulch with hay, straw, or leaves.

Now you are on the road to progress, provided you have made no mistake in the selection of your trees. The purposes for which you intend your fruit is highly important. You should well consider at the outset if for family or market use. This is a business which requires a long look ahead, for it is said, "He who plants pears looks ahead for his heirs."

Caution should be used in procuring your stock; little should be planted that is not fairly tested on the Island, purchased of parties who can be fully relied upon to give you what you want. Do not buy your stock of parties who carry labels in their pockets to make to order what you want out of the same bundle of trees.

Now, having your trees set out in a proper manner, of such varieties as you desire, the next important step is to bring the trees into usefulness. My plan is to use bone--fine bone--very freely about every three years. Another important matter is that of trimming. "Fire purifies," and the knife regulates the grand balance or equilibrium between roots and tops. In most cases the top outgrows the roots, the consequence of which is an ultimate weakness of the tree. It is thrown into excessive fruiting, disease, and premature decay. To avoid this result, use the knife when required. Thin out the inside branches when small, and if the tree does not make a satisfactory growth, cut back half way to the ground.

We will suppose that you have got your trees growing nicely, and they have begun to bear fruit. There are other important steps to be taken, which will be of little cost to you. Provide a wind-break for the orchard. Evergreens answer the purpose, being a protection against the wind. Having this matter attended to, there are other enemies with which we must contend. I refer to the apple and peach tree borers. The former will live in the tree for three years, if unmolested; the latter, one year only. They are very easily destroyed by looking over the trees and taking them out with a knife; or maybe prevented from touching the trees by wrapping a piece of felt paper, 8 inches wide, around the tree near the ground, the bottom being covered with dirt and the top tied tightly above. The pear is not generally disturbed by these insects--only the apple, peach, and quince. We have another insect very destructive to the plum, peach, cherry, and apple--the curcutio, or plum weavel. This season for the first time in twenty years we have gathered a small crop of that very desirable plum, the Purple Favorite. We simply threw air-slaked lime over the trees nearly every morning for from four to six weeks, from the time the tree was out of bloom. Peach trees should be treated in the same manner. Another method of fighting this insect is to spread a sheet under the tree, and with a blow jar off the little Turk and secure him on the sheet. But I consider the lime procedure the less trouble and more effective. The tent caterpillar, which is easily seen, should be destroyed at once. We have yet another insect to contend with which infests the apple and pear, commonly called the Coddling Moth, and the larva, the apple-worm (Garpocapsa pomonella). The loss by the ravaaes of this insect alone to the fruit growers of the United States fan hardly be estimated, as in many cases the whole crop is rendered worthless. Such a vast destruction of two of the most valuable fruits the world produces should stimulate scientists in this age of progress to discover an effectual remedy against such a gigantic evil.

I have never yet discovered nor tried an effectual remedy against this insect. The nearest I have approached his extermination is in the following manner: After it has entered the fruit and accomplished its damage, the time arrives when it has to leave the fruit and hide itself in a quiet, secure position to undergo the transition from the larva to the pupa state, which requires, in the early part of the season, eight or ten days; after this time the miller is hatched and is again ready to besiege the fruit with its sting. The insect, being two-brooded in this climate at least, if not disturbed, has an aggregating force to do mischief the second time. The progeny for the succeeding year have alone to depend on the security of this second generation of larvÆ. As they may often be found in bark of apple trees during winter, my plan of destruction is, about the first of July to take woolen rags long enough to wrap around the trees, and say four inches wide. Each week I look over the trees, and destroy the worms secreted under the rags and wherever I find them until the fruit is off the trees. I have all the green fruit, of every kind, carefully picked up as soon as it falls, thereby destroying many of the curculio as well as the apple-worms.

One word upon the grape--the insect part of the question. The Phylloxera vastatrix, or grape-vine louse, is already at work on Long Island. It is found very difficult to raise many of our fine, new grapes with us in consequence of the depredations of this very minute insect, it being almost too small to be seen by the naked eye. There has lately been discovered a remedy which is entirely chemical and as yet but little disseminated. Very soon, no doubt, a discovery will be made that will stay the progress of this destructive enemy.

We should plant aplenty of cherry and small fruit trees to yield feed for birds. In return they will assist us in our efforts to preserve a bountiful supply of this health producing element.